What do the israeli elections mean for palestinians?

On Tuesday 17th of September 2019, Israeli citizens cast their votes to decide who will next rule the divided state. The current Prime Minister Mr Benjiman Netanyahu failed to form a coalition government in April and it seems he has failed to gain a majority this time round. It's the second election of the year, just five short months after the first one hence voters aren't feeling very enthusiastic, and yet turnout has gone up from 68.5% to 70%. The figures show there hasn't been a drastic change, but some of that rise has been contributed by some of Israel's one and a half million Palestinian citizens, who it should be pointed out, are treated like 2nd class citizens. Palestinian lawyer, author and activist Noura Araket said on journalists Mehdi Hassan's podcast 'Deconstructed' this week, "The differences they have in policies towards Palestinians are absolutely non existent. In addition to this, there are 51 laws that differentiate Palestinians and Jewish Israelis, from where they can live, to who they can marry." Despite being neglected by the Israeli government, is all the more reason Palestinians are taking a more active role in participating, as a peace solution with their neighbour and occupier, seems unlikely for the near future.



As for Netanyahu, well this puts him in a difficult and compromising potion, as his authority and power is being threatened for the first time since his first term in 2009. He is the leader of right wing party Likud, which  have been ruling not only Israeli citizens lives, but quite literally every minute aspect of Palestinians lives too. The Likud party won 31 put of 120 seats in the Knesset, whilst Netanyahu's rival Benny Gantz blue and white party won 33 seats, which means neither won enough for a majority. This takes the country back to earlier this year in April, with affairs now hanging in the air. Even days before the election this past Tuesday, many spectators predicted that the result would be similar to Aprils elections. Netanyahu has called on Gantz 'to meet and hold discussions on a broad unity government with other right wing parties.' However, Gantz rejected this offer on live television, and instead called Netanyahu to join him, to a "broad liberal unity government under MY leadership.' Many have argued that the reason for Gantz' lack of cooperation is because of his rival's dark and and scandalous past. Not only is Netanyahu the first Israeli Prime Minister to be charged with bribe, fraud and breach of trust, but the three corruption indictments he faces, are pending a hearing. Yet despite these seriously worrying allegations, spokesman Yonatan Urich said that Netanyahu's lawyers will present 'crushing arguments' to show his innocence in two weeks at the planned pre-indictment hearing. This gives his buddy Gantz all the more reason to grab the power that is at the moment, hanging in the air with no one individual in control. His 'Blue and White' party supposedly holds a more 'centrist' position, and is recognised by the rest of the world as more liberal. However if we really look at the Blue and White party in its truest form, it fundamentally has the same values and opinions as the rest of Israel's Knesset towards Palestine, and that is to gradually occupy and take over everything, dating back to when they began ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948. An evidence of Gantz' plans for Palestine, is that he publicly announced that Netanyahu stole the idea of annexing the Jordan Valley from him, and it was originally his idea. It's pretty ridiculous that their disagreement isn't about the fact that they're yet again illegally stealing and controlling land that doesn't belong to them, but about who came up with the idea first. The Jordan Valley and Northern Dead Sea constitutes roughly 30% of the occupied West Bank, where already over 50,000 Palestinians live. The West Bank is divided in to three main parts A, B and C, with the Palestinian government having limited power over areas A and B.




Tomorrow afternoon on Sunday the 22nd, leaders of both parties will meet in an attempt to break this stalemate or potentially hold a third election, despite two have already taken place this year. Despite the unforeseeable results of this election, it's quite clear that their opinions on Palestine are exactly the same, so in fact it doesn't make a difference whether it's Netanyahu or Gantz. This hatred towards the Palestinians has been going on for decades. Like the first Prime Minister of Israel David Ben Gurion said to his son many years ago: "We must expel Arabs and take their places. And if we have to use force to guarantee our own right to settle in those places- then we have force at our disposal." This isn't too far off from what Netanyahu said recently,"Israel needs a Zionist government. There can't be a government that is being supported by Arab parties which are anti-Zionist."

So what do the recent elections mean for Palestinians? Unfortunately they're now even further away from a peace solution than before. 1 and a half million out of 5 million Palestinians have the right to vote, which means less than a quarter get a say, whereas 6 and a half million Jewish Israelis have the right to vote, including 600,000 Jewish settlers illegally living in occupied West Bank and East Jeruselum.
All that will happen is Israel will continue to illegally steal land that was never theirs, most recently the Jordan Valley, continue to command the IDF to shoot peaceful protestors every Friday at the Gaza Strip, and continue to build a stronger relationship with their oldest buddy and dearest friend America, so they can continue funding Israel to further cripple the Palestinians. And they say Israel is the one and only democracy in the Middle East....